Can't get my 5 month old to sleep for longer than 5 minutes! help!

[[M]umma[M]ia]

This has been going on for about 2 weeks now and I'm that exhausted i nearly fainted today, so i need help. Mia has her day sleeps at 9am, 12pm and 3pm and bed at 7pm. Well these day sleeps have turned into a nightmare. It usually only take 10-20 mins to get her to sleep but she wakes 5 minutes later. I feel like i have tired everything. I go in and resettle which takes about an hour to get her back to sleep and she will sleep for mayb 15 mins. Sometimes it doesnt work at all and she will just lay there awake. I have tried going in as soon as she starts stiring before she wakes, but nope.. that doesnt work either. I have tried, rocking, patting, head and eye stroking, belly rubbing.. changing her potition.. nothing works.

She USED to sleep great during the day. For them 3 sleeps about 3-4 hours sleep.

Help.. im losing the plot.

[Jakabella]

AAWWW hun big hugs to you!

As I am all new to this baby sleep thing I dont really have any advice for you! Bella used to sleep maybe 2 x 1/2 hr sleeps during the day and I couldnt change that either.. but she now has maybe 5-6 1/2 hr sleeps and sleeps 10pm - 10am - so I guess it just goes to show that sleep habits change for now real reason - maybe its just a phase??

Can you get some one to come over and look after her while you have a rest??

Bella used to fight her sleeps and I found that if I tried to make her sleep then she would just fight it more so now I let her stay up and as soon as I see the eye rub or the yawn will put her to sleep. She has not gone into a phase that she will only have her day sleeps on my bed as I lay down with her and stroke her or pat her back till she drifts off.. can you try that? I have had a few naps with her too and its good for both of us..

Sorry that im not that much help!

Love & Kisses
Kate xox

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Kate - I would be fine with 30 mins!!!!!! lol she does sleep on our bed.. still attempting the cot situation. thanks for the advice xoxox ps.. surely a phase doesnt last for weeks??

[BeautifulMadness]

A phase can last a week/s. Maybe she is going through a different stage and her patterns might need changing, maybe skip a sleep and see how she goes

[Je$$_84]

Oh hugs hun. We have only just gotten into a routine now and DD is almost 10 months.

There has been so many ups and MANY MANY downs. We tried everything. in the end all DD needed was a few days of adjusted routine and thingsstarted improving. She was having 2-3 day sleeps and waking every few hours at night. She always seemed tired. Once we change things round i started by stretching her day sleeps out... (had to put up with horid screaming and crying til she adjusted. We dropped down 1 sleep in few days then found night sleeps improved and she was settling easier for her sleeps. Then we noticed she wasnt sleeping long in the morning 9.30 sleep (which went to only 1/2 hour. So now she wakes anywhere from 6-7.30 then her only day sleep is around 11-12 and last for 2-3 hours. Then by 5 she is getting sooky again but we do dinner then bath then bottle then bed.

You may need to fiddle with her routine. Maybe try to see what she responds to best- strething out sleeps or seeing signs early and acting on them early. My DS i had to put him to bed when i 1st saw signs of tired nedd cos overtired he was shocking. DD likes to stretch things out.

How is the night sleeping???

[[M]umma[M]ia]

Jess - the night sleeping is fine prob 5 out of the 7 nights. She co-sleeps. She has her last feed at 6pm and goes down at 7 and then i give her a dream feed about 10ish and she wakes about 6:30-7am. See i havent put her in that routine, she did it herself. By 9am shes getting real whingy same with the 12 and 3 one. Shes one of these bubs that only really cries when shes tired. So the way it goes atm is...

7am wake
730 bottle
9am sleep
11am bottle
12pm sleep
2-230pm bottle
3pm sleep
6pm bottle
7pm sleep
10ish pm bottle

so which one do i try and stretch out?? see if she goes down too much later than 3pm.. we have hell trying to get her to sleep at 7.

[Tish]

Hollye have you tried taking her for a walk in the pram or slinging her at about the time she would be due for a sleep? When DS has terrible won't sleep yucky phase sleeps I usually find that things that put him to sleep a month or two ago start working again, almost like a regression until the yucky phase passes.

Or, and this is a big OR... what about some loud music or loud vaccuuming? I take DS to the gym with me once a week where there is loud blaring music and he usually sleeps the 30 min walk to the gym, through my 40 min session and the 30 min walk home. This is very unusual behaviour for him, as he will normally only sleep 30-40 mins at a time at home. I'm too scared to try it myself though, but it is interesting!

*big hugs* to you hun,*you must be feeling shattered and just awful. Is there anyone that can look after DD for an hour or two so you can have a bit of a rest? Or if not maybe try napping with her so you can get some rest - you must really need it.

Tish
xx

[Tish]

By 9am shes getting real whingy same with the 12 and 3 one.

I did a sleep school day program, and they suggested that by the time they get to whingy they're into overtired already where it can be harder to get to sleep and stay there.

Maybe you could try putting her down half an hour earlier?

Weird sleep signals they told me to look for were grabbing at clothes, a little cough, hiccoughs, a little vomit, movement then pause then movement, avoiding eye contact, then the obvious rubbing at eyes and yawning meant overtired was going to happen soon. They said the subtle signs on their own didn't mean tired, but 3 or 4 in a cluster could be tired.

HTH